Primary / Secondary School Enrollment / Primary Per Capita / Secondary School Enrollment Per Capita

Although significant improvement has been registered in recent years as regards the standardization of reporting categories in educational statistics, many difficulties remain in attempting to assemble truly comparable data, particularly of a longitudinal character. Insofar as possible, data on preprimary, vocational or technical, part-time, and adult education students have been omitted from the archive listings. With the foregoing exceptions, every efforts has been made to assemble data on the basis of relevant UNESCO criteria:

First level: Education whose main function is to provide basic instruction in the tools of learning (e.g., at elementary school, primary school). Its length may vary from 4 to 9 years, depending on the organization of the school system in each country.

Second level: Education based upon at least four years of previous instruction at the first level, and providing general or specialized instruction, or both (e.g., at middle school, secondary school, high school, . . . ).

Third level: Education which requires, as a minimum condition of admission, the successful completion of education at the second level, or evidence of the attainment of an equivalent level of knowledge (UN Statistical Yearbook: 1971, p. 774).

Regrettably, the UN criteria for categorizing second-level instruction changed during 1964-65. In general, 1964 "secondary level" figures are equated with 1965 and later "second level: general" education figures, but not uniformly so. Also, the omission of vocational education introduces an element of bias, since more and more contemporary students are being enrolled in this category, especially in the socialist countries.